This pair of albatross are just a couple of “love birds”. Photo by Angela Sevin via Flickr Creative Commons

So do we! There are many divergent mating systems in the animal kingdom from monogamous to polygamous, and even to systems so indefinable that they’re anomalous. In honor of Valentine’s Day, love is in the air at the National Wildlife Federation. While flowers and chocolates may work to woo your lover in our world, the animal kingdom abides by a different set of standards.

Monogamy, which refers to having one lover at a time, frequently arises in the animal kingdom when offspring require extensive parenting. Some monogamous species form stable bonds for just one season, which is referred to as serial monogamy. Others may form pair bonds for multiple seasons or even life.

Celebrate Valentine’s Day with these wild couples:

Mate-Assistance Monogamy

One type of monogamy is called mate-assistance which occurs when males remain with a female to help guard and rear their young to secure healthier offspring.

Laysan Albatross

Not only does the laysan albatross fit this bill, but they also form this sacred pair bond for life.

Having scoured the ocean for food for the first few years of their life, albatross return to the same stretch of shore in which they were raised to find a mate. And they don’t take courting their partners lightly. Albatross will invest 8-9 years learning how to court and searching for that perfect partner.

Once chosen, an elaborate courtship display will take place. They perform a harmonious dance of clacking beaks and mimicry of motions. They will perform this same ritual with the same individual in the same location every breeding season for the rest of their 50 year plus life. The oldest known bird in the wild is a Laysan albatross which nests on Midway Island. This golden-ager, named Wisdom, is at least 65 years old.

Mate-Guarding Monogamy

Another type of monogamy is called Mate-guarding. This allows males to prevent rivals from copulating with their female and thus protects his offspring. This often happens in communities where it is difficult to locate a female, or where the sex ratios are uneven.

Cuttlefish

Courtship is not an easy game among the male cuttlefish. Males outnumber females 10 to 1 so the competition to pass on genes is fierce.

Males will intimidate each other with changing coloration and skin patterns. In fact, a documentary by NOVA entitled, “Cuttlefish: Kings of Camouflage” explained that cuttlefish have “electric skin” allowing them to change color instantaneously. Scientists believe they utilize this for camouflage, communication, courtship, and trickery.

When an electric performance does not prove male dominance, it’s time for full-body contact. The winner of the fight will guard his prized female for mating rights.

However, not all battles are even. Smaller males that have no chance in combat use a more unconventional approach. They mimic the appearance of females. While the large males are engaged in sexual warfare, the smaller males have successfully mated with the females’ right under their noses. Such males are never attacked by the larger mate-guarding males.

Female-Enforced Monogamy

Burying beetle. Photo by gailhampshire via Flickr Creative Commons

Female-enforced monogamy is when a female actively interferes with the male’s ability to bear offspring with another female.

Burying Beetle

Collectively the couple burying beetles bury and lay their eggs on a dead carcass. Once the eggs are laid, the male will release sex pheromones into the air to attract additional mates. The female will assault her mate by pinching, biting, and sucker-punching him. But it’s not due to jealousy that the female burying beetle violates her mate. Instead, it’s to protect her offspring from competing for food and nutrition with other larvae were he to mate with another female.

Extreme Male Monogamy

Some species, although monogamous, don’t conform to what most of us would consider a desirable outcome for the male. Here are two examples of male monogamy and sexual conflict:

Deep Sea Angler

If the idea of becoming one mind, one body, one spirit sounds a little clingy to you, then you will be fascinated with mating system of the deep sea angler fish. Living in the vast depths of the ocean where sunlight does not penetrate finding a mate may be difficult.

As the male angler fish matures, its digestive system degenerates; making it impossible to feed on his own. In order to survive, he must attach himself to a female as a parasitic appendage.

He then releases an enzyme that fuses the tissues of his body to hers. The two become one, joined by the central nervous system. This parasitic male leaches nourishment from the female, but it is a good tradeoff because she will receive a constant supply of sperm for the spawning season.

Praying Mantis

Being eaten alive is just another day in the life of a Praying mantis. For this aggressive couple exhibits sexual cannibalism. During copulation, it isn’t unusual for the female to eat the head of her lover. It is not truly known why this feasting of the suitor exists, but there are a few theories of why.

According to an article in the Oxford Journal, one speculation is that this is an adaptive foraging strategy, providing the female with nutrients for survival and to enhance her breeding success. Another proposal is that it is a result of strong selection for female’s aggression in early life stages. Either way, I wouldn’t want to be on the opposite end of her jaws of love.

With Valentine’s Day quickly approaching, it’s nice to step back and appreciate the love that’s going on around us. Humans are not the only beings capable of forming relationships. Wildlife also look for partners, whether it’s a mate for life or just for a fling.

In environments where resources are unevenly distributed, competition for mates may become intense. Wildlife sometimes prefer a polygamist relationship with two or more lovers. No, it’s not because they’re party animals, it’s driven by supply and demand.

Check out some of the different types of polygamy and the wildlife that exhibit these behaviors:

(Also be forewarned, these species have evolved to be pretty scandalous.)

Polygyny

Polygyny is an adaptive type of polygamy where one male mates with several females in one breeding season.

Lyrebird

If you want to get the attention of a potential mate, then try doing what the lyrebird does and mimic chainsaws, camera shutters, and other birds. Lyrebirds, native to Australia, have a dispersed polygynous, “lek” mating system where males congregate in a cluster of small territories, collectively called a lek, and perform elaborate visual and vocal displays to persuade females to mate. Lyrebird males mate with any females that they can attract, and as many as they can in the same breeding season. They do not form pair-bonds and emancipate themselves from parental care.

During sexual displays, the male Lyrebird coordinates each song with an intricate dance to woo the ladies. His acoustic repertoire includes sounds from his environment: kookaburras, dingoes, car alarms, ringing phones, crying babies, rifle-shots, and even laser guns. He can also imitate over 20 different species of birds. When the breeding season hits-between June and August, it is not uncommon for the male to spend six hours a day performing his concerto. His sound is so perfect that he is often mistaken for the real thing.

Elephant Seal

The elephant seal takes a contrasting and more violent approach to polygyny called female-defense polygyny. This is where females form groups (called harems) and are controlled by a single alpha male. Elephant seal harems can contain up to 100 females.

These three-ton mammals have a reproductive strategy focused solely on inseminating as many females in their harem as possible while doing nothing to help rear their offspring. Males often battle each other for mating dominance. These aggressive battles are often blood baths and sometimes even end in death.

Polyandry

One of the rarest and most unusual domestic arrangements in the animal kingdom is called polyandry. In this mating system, one female mates with and controls the breeding activity of several males. Typically, but not always it involves sex-role reversal.

Dunnok

Dunnok. Photo by Francesco Veronesi via Flickr Creative Commons

Native to the UK, the dunnock exhibits cooperative polyandry where multiple males assist a female in one nest. Females breed with two or more males at once, which is quite rare among birds.

Although pair-bonding between the alpha male and female dunnock are secure, females will concurrently court a second male. This is a form of trickery to guarantee paternal care to her offspring.

When the dunnock’s alpha suitor is foraging, the female will sneak into the bush and copulate with the beta male. Once finished, she displays her rump for her alpha. He expels the sperm of the beta male by pecking at her genital opening and then mates with her himself. Dunnocks take just one-tenth of a second to fornicate and can mate more than 100 times a day.

Though polyandrous mating is the most common in the dunnock, it has also been observed exhibiting monogamous, polygynous, and polygynadrous mating systems.

See an amazing video of the female Dunnok courting two suitors from BBC.

Polygynandry

Polygynandry involves having an exclusive relationship with more than one partner. This is commonly associated with multi-male, multi-female group compositions.

Ring Tailed Lemur

Endemic to Madagascar, the ring-tailed lemur displays a third type of polygamy called polygynandry.

In these female-dominant colonies, the sense of smell (olfaction) plays a crucial role in group communication. In displays of aggression, males will engage in a social display called “stink fighting” where they rub their tales with scent glands located on their wrists, and then flick their tales at one another. These “stink fights” can last from 10 minutes to one hour. The males also waive this perfume at females in hopes of seducing a mate.

Promiscuity

Promiscuity is similar to a polygynadrous mating system except that there are no pair bonds formed among specific individuals.

Sea Hare

In the sea hare community, there is certainly no discrimination. Sea hares are a hermaphroditic species (containing both female and male sex organs). When it is time to mate, they release a pheromone called attractin that is 1000x more potent than human pheromones. They create copulation chains, alternating between genders. If the group reaches 15-20 sea hares, this performance will last for days. Check out this video of these mating chains:

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2016/02/playing-the-field-of-love/feed/0Animals to Give Your Heart to This Valentine’s Dayhttp://blog.nwf.org/2015/02/animals-to-give-your-heart-to-this-valentines-day/
http://blog.nwf.org/2015/02/animals-to-give-your-heart-to-this-valentines-day/#respondThu, 12 Feb 2015 03:53:13 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=103659I’m not a huge fan of all the heart shaped balloons and pink of Valentine’s Day. I find it an exhausting holiday. But I’m not heartless. That’s why I’m more than happy to give my heart to these (and all) wild animals this year!

Blue Crabs in the Chesapeake Bay

Populations of the Bay’s iconic blue crab are dangerously low. A major threat to the species is nutrient runoff from lawns and farm fields. The nitrogen and phosphorus feed algal blooms, which can cause oxygen-depleted dead zones, impacting fish and shellfish. We’re working our Maryland affiliate, the National Aquarium, to inspire the creation of wildlife gardens to help filter runoff and improve water quality. Get started on your own backyard habitat!

Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtles in the Gulf

The Kemp’s ridley sea turtle was once close to extinction. The species made a dramatic rebound in the Gulf of Mexico, but the BP oil disaster may have harmed their recovery. The battle continues to make sure BP’s fines go toward restoration in the Gulf, and you can make a difference by taking action.

A Kemp’s ridley hatchling crawls towards the Gulf of Mexico. Photo: National Park Service

Valentine’s Day is here! If you’re looking for some wildlife-themed V-Day crafts and recipes to try out with your kids, we’ve got you covered. Here are 13 activities that will help make Valentine’s Day extra sweet this year!

“Nearly four years after the initial explosion, the impacts of the Gulf oil disaster continue to unfold,” said Ryan Fikes, Gulf Restoration Scientist for the National Wildlife Federation. “Today we learned that BP oil can lead to heart attacks and death in tuna, and that similar cardiac impacts may have occurred in a number of other Gulf species. BP and the other responsible companies need to be held fully accountable for their negligence. As research continues to confirm additional impacts from the oil disaster, it is imperative that penalties from the spill be dedicated to the restoration of the Gulf of Mexico.”This research will be published in the February 14th edition of Science.

BLM officials said during a recent Park County commissioners’ meeting that a master leasing plan for South Park is “a go.” Tom Heinlein, the BLM’s Front Range district manager, said South Park is one of the master leasing plans “we will undertake.”

Along with the commissioners and town councils in Park County, sportsmen’s and wildlife groups formally requested a master leasing plan for South Park. The high-elevation basin, ringed by mountains, is the headwaters of the South Platte River, a source of drinking water for Denver, Aurora and other Front Range cities and is a premier hunting and fishing area. missioners’ meeting that a master leasing plan for South Park is “a go.” Tom Heinlein, the BLM’s Front Range district manager, said South Park is one of the master leasing plans “we will undertake.”

For the movement, the project was a tangible symbol of business-as-usual for U.S. energy policy, and it was easier to organize around than a complicated cap-and-trade scheme. The driving forces were well-known national environmental groups, including policy-based organizations like the NRDC and the National Wildlife Federation; direct action groups such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth; and several local and international grass-roots organizations.

Temple Black went on to sit on the boards of corporations and organizations including the Walt Disney Company, Del Monte and the National Wildlife Federation. She unsuccessfully ran for Congress as a Republican in 1967. She was appointed as America’s ambassador to Ghana in 1974.

Julie Sibbing, senior director of agriculture and forestry programs for the National Wildlife Federation, called the bill “worth the wait.”

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2014/02/valentines-day-crafts-and-bp-oil-spill-in-the-weekly-news-roundup-february-14-2014/feed/013 Valentine’s Day Crafts and Recipes for Kidshttp://blog.nwf.org/2014/01/13-valentines-day-crafts-and-recipes-for-kids/
http://blog.nwf.org/2014/01/13-valentines-day-crafts-and-recipes-for-kids/#respondThu, 30 Jan 2014 23:50:00 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=91205Valentine’s Day is just around the corner! If you’re looking for some fun V-Day crafts and recipes to try out with your kids, we’ve got you covered. Here are 13 activities that will help make Valentine’s Day extra sweet this year!

1. Flamingo Valentines

A Valentine with some serious style!

2. Heart-y Cookies

Copy these designs or use your imagination to create other heart-shaped creatures!

Puget Sound with the Olympic Mountains in the background, credit: Bryn Fluharty

A friend once told me that I have a ‘crush’ on the mountains of the Pacific Northwest. While it might sound strange it is true, I LOVE our mountains. But there is more here to love than just mountains.Here are 14 reasons to love the Pacific Northwest:

1. Puget Sound
Puget Sound is the watery gem of Washington State and is filled with wildlife, amazing scenery and fun recreational opportunities. Visitors and locals alike love getting out onto the water to whale watch, kayak, scuba dive or just enjoy watching the sun set over the San Juan Islands!

2. Mt Rainier National Park
Mt Rainier National Forest offers the opportunity to explore old growth forests and high alpine wilderness. From the hot springs at Ohanapecosh to the flower-covered fields of Paradise and the glaciers of Rainier this iconic area is filled with opportunities for the whole family to enjoy.

Mt Rainier at sunrise, credit: Bryn Fluharty

3.The Olympic Peninsula and National ParkThe mountains and forests are far older than the eternal vampire love that this region has become famous for. The Olympic Mountains tower over the surrounding landscape in a jagged line of peaks. Below the glaciers and barren rocky slopes of the high alpine terrain stretches some of the best examples of temperate rainforest, with life on every moss-covered rock, branch and ancient tree. The roar of pristine and wild rivers fills the air and mixes with the cry of squawking birds. While visiting the park you might even be able to spy members of the largest herd of Roosevelt elk in the U.S.

4.North Cascades National ParkThe North Cascades National Park is a hidden gem offering amazing mountain views, stunning valleys and sparkling waterfalls. This wild area is one of the most diverse ecosystems on earth with some of our most elusive species, such as gray wolves, fish and wolverine.

Hiking in the North Cascades, credit: Bryn Fluharty

5. Dry FallsThe waterfall that once cascaded through a large swatch of Eastern Washington would have made Niagara Falls look like a dripping faucet. The massive movement of water has long since disappeared, leaving behind a 400 foot high cliff spanning 3.5 miles through the desert. This is one of the greatest geological sites in North America, offering a look back at the ice age and a stunning example of the power of water to shape our landscape.

6. The Columbia RiverThe Columbia River inspires awe in all who visit it. Beginning in British Columbia it winds its way through Washington State, coming down to mark the border between Washington and Oregon before emptying into the Pacific Ocean.

7. Wines of the Pacific Northwest
What better way to say I love you than with a bottle of PNW wine! Unique climate and soil means that the Northwest is now producing world class wines from areas like the Yakima Valley in Washington and the Willamette Valley in Oregon.

8. Mt. Hood National ForestJust outside of Portland rises Mt. Hood. With 1,067,043 acres of forest area, locals and visitors can enjoy fishing, camping, boating and hiking and climbing during the summer. The fall brings hunting season. In the winter snow sports enthusiasts are able to enjoy skiing and other snow sports on the slopes of the mountain.

Mt. Hood, credit: Bryn Fluharty

9. Crater Lake National ParkWhat we now know as a lake was once the great Mt. Mazama volcano, which erupted thousands of years ago. At a depth of 1,943, it is the deepest lake in the U.S. and the seventh deepest in the world with some of the clearest water in the world. Visitors can learn about the history of the area and enjoy the breathtaking views of this incredible geologic feature.

10. The Pacific Crest TrailThe trail stretches from northern Canada down to Mexico, running through Washington and Oregon and gives hikers an amazing and unique view of the Pacific Coast’s treasures.

11. The Pacific FlywayIt is a bird lovers’ dream, with thousands of birds each year migrating through between Patagonia to Alaska.Maintaining flyways like this is crucial for the survival of wildlife!

Looking out at the Cascades from the summit of Mt Rainier, credit: Bryn Fluharty

12. The High Desert in OregonA visit to the High Desert is a must. This amazing geologic area covers a quarter of the state. It is a stark, yet diverse landscape that is home to abundant flora and fauna.

13. Cannon BeachIt is hard not to stand in awe of the giant pillars of rock that rise out of the Pacific Ocean at Cannon Beach in Oregon. Romance runs over the rocky shores while looking out over a sunset on the Pacific. If dinner on the beach is not for you there are many other opportunities to go out and explore the coast! Columbia River Gorge offer amazing recreational opportunities.

14. The Rogue River-Siskiyou National ForestLocated in Oregon and California, this National Forest covers both the Cascade and the Siskiyou Mountains, featuring wild rivers, great fishing and amazing biodiversity.

The Columbia River on the OR-WA border, credit: Bryn Fluharty

These amazing places are available to us because of conservation efforts throughout the years. We need to continue to support conservation efforts in order to maintain what we have and protect wild areas like these from threats such as mining, development and a climate change. Glaciers throughout the region are melting at accelerated rates, which threatens both the beauty and ecosystems of the mountains and also the water supply for areas such as the Yakima Valley.

We here in the Pacific Northwest love our land! Want to share your love? Connect with us on Facebook to share your photos or stories, or comment below!

Flowers, sweets, bling and dressing up may woo some sweethearts, but a certain group of animals are preying for love this Valentine’s Day.

You Look Good Enough to Eat

For males, the red hour glass marking on black widow spiders should be an indicator that their time is up. Ordinary gifts won’t do for the females of this species; these venomous femme fatales require the ultimate sacrifice. Black widows are notorious mate eaters, and they’re hardly alone. Female praying mantises, scorpions, midges and other spiders are also known to decapitate and gobble up their significant others.

Love Hurts

Scientists have several theories about the motivation of mate eaters and their victims. Experts speculate that self-sacrifice may increase reproductive success for males by providing extra nutrition to the mother of their offspring. Other researchers suggest mate munching is just a case of mistaken identity. Also, killing members of the opposite sex may be a way of eliminating competition for food.

Males of some species are also a primary food source for females like the Chinese praying mantis.

Some males in the mate-eating world, however, are quick enough and lucky enough to escape. However, ladies in the animal kingdom aren’t the only ones who take love bites too far. Male paddle crabs can flip the script and devour their mates, too.

A dozen roses doesn’t seem like too much to ask, especially in comparison to what some six and eight-legged females require. Sacrificing a little time this Valentine’s Day is much better than sacrificing your life.

Male jumping spiders put on a show to attract a potential mate. If the female isn’t impressed, she might just eat him.

More for Valentine’s Day

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2012/02/love-sucks-bites-claws-and-decapitates/feed/0Happy Valentine’s Day: My Best Photos and Videos of Wildlife L’Amourhttp://blog.nwf.org/2012/02/happy-valentines-day-my-best-photos-and-videos-of-wildlife-lamour/
http://blog.nwf.org/2012/02/happy-valentines-day-my-best-photos-and-videos-of-wildlife-lamour/#commentsTue, 14 Feb 2012 04:05:32 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=44626Love is in the air…and not just for people. Wildlife have their own rituals of l’amour, although they usually don’t involve boxes of chocolates or bouquets of flowers. To celebrate Valentine’s Day, here are some of my favorite photos and videos of wildlife romance (real or imagined) that I have taken over the years.

River otter on the Yellowstone River in Hayden Valley share a cutthroat trout

Canada geese pair on the Gardner River at the north entrance of Yellowstone

Two bald eagles in Lamar Valley in Yellowstone

Read more about wildlife mating rituals >>
]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2012/02/happy-valentines-day-my-best-photos-and-videos-of-wildlife-lamour/feed/2Valentine’s Day: A Holiday for Real Animalshttp://blog.nwf.org/2012/02/valentines-day-a-holiday-for-real-animals/
http://blog.nwf.org/2012/02/valentines-day-a-holiday-for-real-animals/#commentsMon, 13 Feb 2012 14:04:38 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=44375Naturalist, writer and NWF Conservation Hall of Fame inductee Ernest Thompson Seton, whose animal tales were popular among a wide audience in the early 1900s, wrote in Wild Animals I Have Known, “Man has nothing that the animals have not at least a vestige of, the animals have nothing that man does not in some degree share.” Valentine’s Day, with its courtship rituals and mating games, stands out as one holiday that could prove his case. To wit:

Dressing Up

Antlers in buck deer serve as a sign of the male, warning off rivals and attracting potential mates. This image from the annual NWF National Wildlife Photo Contest was donated to NWF by Jack T. Sandow, Jr.

Going out on a Valentine’s Day date? Chances are you’ll dress up to look top-notch for the one you’re courting. Similarly, nature gussies up many of her species for courtship purposes.

Consider the antlers of buck deer or bull elk or the mating plumage of male songbirds, ducks and peafowl. All of these points are important to attracting a mate, plus they can scare off competitors. Like a pricey power suit, bright plumage, antlers, bright spots on a bird’s bill or a lizard’s throat, say to potential mates, “Look at me and be awed. I’m strong and healthy enough to put energy into growing these doodads. I’m powerful and skilled.”

More generally, species-specific colors and appendages—a robin’s red breast, or a male mountain gorilla’s silver back—say, “Make no mistake about it, I’m a member of such and such gender, and I’m a dazzling example of our species, so what’s not to like?”

Individual members of many animal species learn from infancy that appearance is important. In fact, through a process called imprinting, individuals come to identify with the look of the creatures that raise them, which usually means their parents and ensures that they seek mates and companions from their own species. But you can take a newborn animal and mess with its head: Austrian zoologist Konrad Lorenz once raised a rook (a European member of the crow family) so that it became imprinted on him; as an adult the rook, interested in mating, tried to stuff worms into Lorenz’s ears as part of a (misdirected) courtship feeding ritual.

Bearing Gifts

Valentine’s Day is a prime gift-giving holiday, part merchandizing ploy and part courtship. But giving gifts to prospective or actual mates is not uniquely human.

Bonobo (a.k.a. pygmy chimpanzee) males sometimes offer fruit to females with which they want to mate. Many male spiders present dead insects to prospective mates, in part to keep the indiscriminately predatory females from eating the suitors. In some spider species, males wrap an insect gift in silk webbing so the female will be preoccupied with unwrapping it, further enhancing the males’ odds of escaping the mating process alive. (The males of at least one spider species give females just a wad of empty silk—ladies beware).

Some male birds are champion gift givers, offering complete nests to females. The bowerbird of Australia and New Guinea is a famed example, the male building elaborate nests decorated with small, often shiny objects that attract female attention. As with gaudy plumage, the nest tells females, “Hey, I’m a male in excellent physical condition, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to gather all these bits of bone, shell, fruit et cetera so I can offer you this delightful house with a rain-forest view.”

Among red-winged blackbirds, the males that lay claim to the best nesting sites get females first. In European storks, the legendary bearers of babies, the nest is a really potent gift. The birds mate for life, but their fidelity is to the nest, not the mate. Male and female return yearly to the same nest—not to each other—which has the effect of making them mates for life.

May I Have This Dance?

Birds, like this peacock, commonly use their feathers for challenging rivals and attracting mates, as shown in this image by Virginia Smith, entered in the NWF annual National Wildlife Photo Contest.

Dancing occurs in most human cultures. In some cases, men and women even perform separate, gender-specific dances they watch one another do, the perfect chance to get a measure of one another’s physical fitness. Birds are riding that bandwagon, too.

An obvious case is the peacock, with its outspread tail, which it will shake and rattle to attract females. Wild turkeys engage in the same ritual, with tom (male) turkeys spreading their brown tails like Puritan versions of peacocks. The expansion of body feathers as well as tail feathers makes males look larger and more fit, a display designed not only to attract females but to warn away other males.

Among the bird world’s real hoofers are the sage grouse and prairie chickens that gather on special dancing areas—flat, open grounds called leks—where they hop and stomp in a ritualized “dance” that attracts females. (Given that birds apparently descended from two-legged dinosaurs, one can only wonder if perhaps, millions of years ago, courting T. rexes capered about in thunderous, earth-shaking mating dances; probably not, but what an image!) In a real case of sharing, some American Indian peoples incorporated movements from prairie chicken mating dances into their own tribal steps.

Birds use other displays as well, such as eagles engaging in intricate mating flights, or male woodcocks spiraling into springtime skies as they issue mating calls. All show that the individual participants are fit, strong, agile—in all, a good potential mate.

Valentine’s Day: Wild about Red

A male cardinal in VA, an image entered in the NWF National Wildlife Photo Contest by Michele Fletcher, shows the assertiveness of bright red.

Red is the thematic color of Valentine’s Day, which may be more than a random ornamental choice. Studies since 2005 indicate that humans see red as a color of dominance or adeptness. Sport teams with red uniforms are perceived as more formidable by both fans and rivals. In competitions ranging from hockey to karate, from wrestling to boxing, red uniforms can be a significant factor in determining who wins in contests between evenly matched teams or individuals, according to research by British anthropologists Russell Hill and Robert Barton of the University of Durham. In an analysis published last year, Dartmouth University researcher Jerald Kralik and his colleagues found that during the 2004 Olympics, athletes wearing red won more often than did those wearing blue, especially in one-on-one contests such as wrestling.

Red, say biologists studying the color, is the shade of dominance and warning among nonhuman animals, too. In one study, rhesus macaques avoided people wearing red tee shirts and caps, but approached people in green or blue. Biologists have learned that red coloration on the faces and rumps of malemandrills—large African monkeys—gives them an advantage in attracting mates. Moreover, red plastic rings attached to the legs of male zebra finches increase their dominance.

So on Valentine’s Day, stick with tradition and go for the red.

Ernest Thompson Seton aside, there is a human behavior other animals are not known to share: the celebration of holidays. Happy Valentine’s Day! And may your courtship rituals prove true to your dreams.

To see more photos likes those in this blog, visit the National Wildlife Photo Contest site. You can celebrate your love for nature by entering the 42nd annual NWF National Wildlife Photo Contest, which opens Tuesday, February 14.

Read more about animals and birds from the pages of National Wildlife magazine.